When I was your age...

For the longest time I was uninterested in social networking via technology that went beyond the phone. I was this way for two reasons. One, I was never really allowed on the computer unless it was for school work and two, everyone else was doing it (it being myspacing, facebooking, and newest, twittering) and I wasn't going to ride the wave.

Then I quickly learned that it was a great way to keep in touch with friends I had moved away from and set everything up. I hardly use myspace any more, but no one does really. It has sentimental value though, and I'll probably keep it forever. Facebook is my favorite way to creep people and twitter is fun, although frequently obnoxious. You can use it from your phone, and the logo is a bird, so twitter gets bonus points.

The Twitter program works like so: you create an account and then via your computer or cellular device you can update your status and let everyone who fallows you know whats going on all the time. Its like facebook but the status part only. Then it gets complicated. You can choose to have your post updated to facebook by doing this action- "status update here #fb". the '#' is called a hash. The hash is basically an explanation of why you're posting what you're posting. When updating your twitters, you can put a hash after anything. If its the trend of the day, which you would know by Twitters homepage, its linked to a page where the same hashed twitters everyone everywhere including people you don't follow go.

For example, yesterdays trend was #wheniwasafreshman. Which was ironic to me because my little sister just had her 8th grade graduation and we had a long talk about high school and how I felt going in. Not only was it a blast to read, but it got me thinking. What was I like when I was a freshman? What was going on in the world? Here's what I dug up.

1. I was completely ignorant of how I acted around other people.
2. Kari was my best friend, along with Crystal Maddelina, Lora Short and Morgan Shaver.
3. I had no idea who I was and just wanted to fit in.
4. I was in drama, band, honors English, Intro to computers, physical science, some kind of math and history.
5. I would rush home to do my chores so I could watch Boy Meets World.
6. I went to my first concert: minus the bear, funeral for a friend, straylight run.
7. I loved books by Sarah Dessen.
8. I had no grasp on the way high school or the social ladder worked or how people kept up with it.
9. Jesse McCartney was a hottie.
10. Pirates of the Caribbean came out and I got my first actor crush. On a much older man. Mr. Jhonny Depp.
11. Jhonny Cash passed.
12. I bought two of my now favorite books at a yard sale for 25 cents each.
13. I had to see Finding Nemo.
14. I went to my first high school dance. with 7 of my closest friends.
15. I was a huge note passer.
16. My family was going through some major issues.
17. Rainy days were the norm, and they didn't stop us from riding bikes in front of the cute neighbors house.
18. I was a total brown noser, and I didn't even know what that ment or was.
19. I took AR way more seriously than anyone else.
20. I passed all four parts of the WASL with flying colors. only 8 people in my freshman class passed all four parts.
21. I learned what pot was, what cybering ment and how orange juice and vodka smelled.
22. I thought I was a tough guy because I liked Linkin Park.

Its hard to remember so far back. I feel old because I have to think so long before I even know what year I'm thinking of. They all kind of run together and become a blur of things I want to remember and things I wish I could have suppressed a little bit better. Somethings haven't changed. Kari is still one of my very best friends, and I keep in contact with two of the others. Jhonny Depp is the most attractive dirty man I have ever laid eyes on. I still listen to Linkin Park sometimes haha. These are all things I didn't mention to my sister.

I told her about how Seniors were kind of bullies when we lived in Granite so we had to watch out but she wouldn't have to worry about that. I told her you get no more slack from the parentals just because you were now a high schooler. I told her expectations from everyone change be it your teachers, our parents, her friends. I told her she could recreate herself and be whoever she wanted to be in high school because it was a brand new chapter in her life, and thats why she got a graduation from middle school. I hope all of the little in between things she can figure out for herself.

I realize I kind of jumped subjects here, and I apologize. I'm just a bit jumbled tonight I suppose (:

RIP Paul Grey.

Yesterday Paul Grey, the bassist from a Nu-metal band called 'Slipknot', died from a drug overdose.

If you've never heard of Slipknot before you probably don't like them but I'm sure you've seen them. They wear the scary masks. I didn't like them for the longest time and referred to them as "angry music". I totally judged it before giving them a chance. Matt and I have been friends for about 5 years. He has always been into this kind of music and I always begged for him to change the cd or the song on the ipod. Due to his constant refusal, I forced myself to listen past the heavy drums and strumming. I loved the lyrics and the emotion behind the noise. Eventually, the 'noise' became what I enjoyed the most. This was the turning point. Before I knew it, my shuffle would be playing Reba one song, and metal the next.

Last August Slipknot was suppose to come here on tour. Being Matts favorite band, we had to get tickets. We were so excited for months just to find out the day before the big show that they wouldn't be coming because Joey, the drummer, had be hospitalized. They canceled Boise and two other shows. The only difference is they didn't reschedule coming back here like they did everywhere else.

If we do get a chance to see them, its going to be a while and it will defiantly not be the same. Slipknot had the same band members since the beginning- nearly 14 years.

The band members are identified by not only the hand-crafted self made masks but also by the numbers 0-9. Paul Grey was "Number 2" but will be remembered as the number one bassist of Nu-metal for a very, very long time.

http://s0.ilike.com/play#Slipknot:Before+I+Forget:89557:s412986.8726157.763.0.2.226%2Cstd_a55c3db1c0c74b5098f1393ea9f498a1

That ones a bit hard, this one is my favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiGtN-dplYk



"Sitting in the dark I can't forget
Even now I realize the time I'll never get.
Another story of bitter pills and fate
I can't go back again, I can't go back again"
-dead memories

lump sat alone in a boggy marsh

Well, technically it was my armpit.

gross.

I said I would post about whatever life threw my way. Life did not throw lemons. It threw bacterial infection. This is some gnarly stuff, feel free to leave the post now. Its not a post about self pity or anything of that sort, just kinda whats going on in my health. Which I generally don't pay enough attention to I guess. I don't do anything bad for me. I don't smoke or do drugs. A party maybe once a month, but I'm such a light weight I'm not sure if I can even say I drink then. Over all I'd say I'm okay in the health department.

My body thinks otherwise.

I got this bump a few months a go and it hurt pretty badly but with the insane fear of needles i possess there was no way I was going to the doctor. I'm talking they bring out the cotton ball and I start crying kind of fear. So no, thanks, no doctor for me. Finally it went away and I was pretty proud of myself. Then it came back last week with an odd ring around it and I was sore all up my lower arm and the side of my boob. Still, I could survive until it decided it was done here. Then I got sick at the mall.

Ever since I can remember I have these dizzy spells, and my vision gets a bit blurry. These past few weeks Its gone from a little dizzy to throwing up and fainting (only for a few seconds, but still!). So I've done that whole ordeal twice this week and once last week. My friends and boyfriend were going to knock me out and take me themselves if I kept resisting. Reluctantly, I went.

Worst mistake of my life. Bump, whose name is Nova, hurts much much worse now then it ever did before. They gave Nova a squeeze and said "yep, you need minor surgery. Are you up for that now?" It wasn't really a question. It had to be done either then or two hours later. The nurse, who was a nice lady that seemed like she didn't belong in a profession that caused 20 year olds to cry, took me into the procedure room. Procedure rooms are scary. This was my first minor surgery ever and I was all alone because I refused to let Lin come back with me. I laid on the crinkly tissue paper they have on the bed and immediately started tearing up. Nice nurse had a needle in her hand.

Sensing that i was distressed (and by sensing I mean she noticed she now needed rain boots and a straight jacket to hold me) she tried to calm me down by telling me that it shouldn't hurt for more than a few seconds and then would become numb from the Novocaine. I informed her that a few seconds was far too long and do you please please have numbing gel? Foiled! They totally did. She rubbed the cold goop on Nova and said they would be back in about fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes went by and all I could think about was evil doctors with very sharp pointy objects. Then one came in and I started tearing up again. Masked doctor was not very kind. He poked at Nova with his hand and to my displeasure, it HURT. It seemed his feathers were a bit ruffled at the fact that I was still not numb but he was busy and there was only one thing left to do. Regrettably for me he did not rub me down with more cold goop. He pulled a needle out of no where and shot fire into Nova, and my whole body in general. I was not a happy camper. Not only was it extremely uncomfortable, but it didn't even work. I felt him squeezing and prodding and everything. Then, while shoving gauze into the gash, he informed me that I would have to get blood drawn afterward.

I could have died of exhaustion of stressing myself out so much. To make this long story a bit shorter, have been back to get re-cut twice, have to keep going back until Tuesday, got my blood drawn and am still waiting for the results. The worst part? They think I'm diabetic so I didn't even get ice cream.

If you've never listened to 'lump' go do it. The Presidents of the USA are quite comical. At least that song is, I cant honestly recall if I've ever heard anything else by them. Eat an Ice cream while you're doing it, just for me.

Then I realized you had no idea what I ment by 102...

So perhaps I shall explain myself.

After a succession of unlucky occurrences I found myself leaving my KD home in Moscow to find a job in Boise. This had to be done in order to save some money so I could, eventually, go back to school. By chance a girl i went to Fruitland with needed a second roommate so rent would be slightly more affordable. She brought me to the Conservatory Apartments, 102. It was perfect because it was walking distance to my job, right next to the stadium and only a few blocks from Matts house. Plus, we were friends but not best buds so it wasn't going to be like we had to include each other in everything we did all the time.

So I moved in with Miss Kirsten and a girl I had never met, Jessica. They shared a room and I had mine to myself. Three months later Matt needed a new place to live because Joel, who was his only roommate, had been out of a job for two months and decided to relocate to the basement couch of his parents house. Being poor kids, we decided splitting a two-bedroom one-bath apartment at that was running $650 a month between four people would be highly beneficial to our savings accounts. We were semi incorrect. We spent more on food that way.

Through out the past 22 months our 102 has homed many bodies. Jessica moved out. A few strangers were taken in for a few weeks at a time. Bri moved in. Bri moved out but was always over, Kirsten left to Holland for study abroad. Matt and I had the place for ourselves for a month and a half.

Now Lindsay lives with us, and Todd might as well because he spends more time here than at his place a whole block away. Which is fine by us.

I was recently informed by my upstairs neighbors that Matt and I are known as "the cute couple with the baby boxer." The blind man that roams the halls 24/7, Larry, calls us the in-and-outers. Our land lord calls us the 102's. We like that one. Its like we're a clan. Only we're really a family of friends that have way too much fun. I guess that's like a clan.